Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels Architects Inc. has made a concerted effort to bring the company and clients into the world of sustainable design and practices. Martha Werenfels, one of the Providence firm’s principal architects, recently spoke with Providence Business News about why historic preservation and sustainable design are well-suited to each other.
PBN: Could you give me a bit of background on why you became involved with sustainable design?
WERENFELS: I’ve been focused on historic preservation, in terms of my architectural practice, since I was in college. And marrying historic preservation and sustainable design just seems like a very natural fit, [though] not everybody thinks so. It’s really the ultimate form of recycling … restoring historic buildings instead of throwing them away and starting from scratch.
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PBN: Is being based in Providence, with its historic building stock, also an incentive?
WERENFELS: Exactly. There are so many wonderful … historic buildings – and even just a really good existing building stock – that a lot of the architectural projects that come across our desks are involving existing buildings. So to try to make those as sustainable as possible has been our focus.
PBN: What steps do you take when renovating an historic building? PBN: How many of your clients are looking to build LEED-certified projects? Is it something that everyone is now doing? PBN: At some point in the future, do you expect that getting LEED certification and sustainable-building practices will be the norm? PBN: You have been a part of a few national design teams – where does Rhode Island stand in the national picture? Are we ahead of the curve on sustainable practices? PBN: Why is sustainable design important for an architecture firm? PBN: How much cost does being sustainable add to an historic renovation? PBN: In a recession, are there less people willing to spend that extra money? Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels Architects Inc., founded in 1994, has roughly 30 employees. The Providence-based firm specializes in smart growth and sustainable design. For more information, visit www.DurkeeBrown.com.
WERENFELS: In terms of making a building as sustainable as possible, it has to do with improving energy performance; making sure that the materials used are respectful of the environment in terms of how they were produced and how they interact with the environment going forward; and there are different categories of ways to make buildings sustainable.
The [U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] categories clearly cover the different areas of concern. They have six categories.
The first [involves] sustainable sites … doing a project in a place that makes sense environmentally. … And it’s also doing things on the site that are sustainable, like planting vegetation that doesn’t require irrigation, trying not to pave too much of the site.
WERENFELS: Unfortunately not. I wish all our clients were. I would say it’s a select few who are actually going through the process of obtaining LEED certification, because it’s a fairly complicated process. We have probably five LEED projects in the office right now [out of about 30 total projects.]
But even if we’re not going for LEED certification on a particular project, we try to include as many sustainable features as possible, regardless of earning the certification. So we’ll try to do things like energy-efficient lighting, using natural daylight, energy-efficient mechanical equipment and low-flow fixtures. There are a lot of things you can incorporate into a project and not go through the test of being LEED certified.
WERENFELS: A lot of municipalities are looking into requiring it and it’s already happened in several cities. A lot of cities have already adopted legislation that says any new construction in that city has to at least be LEED certified. Boston is doing it right now. It usually [involves large] projects.
WERENFELS: We were slightly behind the head of the pack getting the first project LEED certified, but now I think a number of projects are going online pretty quickly. I think in general the Northeast and California are ahead of the curve. … We’re catching up a little bit.
WERENFELS: We see ourselves as a community-based firm and we feel that we need to do the right thing. If we’re not doing the right thing in terms of sustainability and setting an example, who is going to?
We bought our own building in 2007 and we basically decided to practice what we preach. So we bought a historic building that … had been unoccupied for about five years. We renovated it for our own offices. We did not go for LEED certification, but we … maximized [natural] lighting and views, installed low-flow plumbing and fixtures. We did things that we could do to make it as efficient as possible, short of becoming LEED certified. … We bought an old manufacturing building [in the Jewelry District] and we occupy the top floor.
WERENFELS: There have been a lot of studies about that and the U.S. Green Building Council will tell you that it is an about 2 percent to 5 percent increase in cost. That’s not much at all, but that’s just construction cost. There are also professional fees associated with the application process to be LEED certified.
WERENFELS: That’s possible, but I think another way to look at it is that the market today is so incredibly competitive that if you are a developer or somebody bringing a project online, you want to have every possible edge that you can to compete in the marketplace. Introducing your building as LEED certified or sustainable is an edge – it’s that much better of a building. And a lot of people are looking for that. •
